Post Match Thread | Manchester City vs Crystal Palace (LC)

[Manchester33]

Some nice photo's in there. One thing I can never understand is when photographers (the clubs photographers do this a lot) miss the display in the south stand and focus on taking pictures of the half empty family stand to show a group of tourists holding 'Come on City' clappers!

 

[The perfect fumble]

 

[supercity88]

Toure has been great for us and remains a superb player. However I'm finding it harder to see him as an automatic start any more. If we go with two holding midfielders and two wide players he isn't suited for either of those roles. When Silva is fit he fills the attacking midfield slot.

It's really only with some variant of 4-4-2 (like 4-1-3-1-1) that he fits and we cannot afford that system in big European games.

Sometimes great players just don't easily fit managerial tactical preferences. He still is a great player though and in the right system he'd be tearing things up.

It's a really tough problem. On the ball he's excellent and creates a lot of chances, spreading play around the pitch. His awareness of where the space is and ability to find it is brilliant and he's still difficult to stop or defend against. But defensively he will leave gaps where he struggles to cover the ground. Overall we seem to still win more with him than we would without, because we lose a lot of the control of the game without him. Fernandinho is a brilliant box to box player but he's not as capable as Yaya is at pulling the strings. If I was Pellegrini I'd be speaking to Yaya about his game management. Making sure he doesn't expend too much energy unnecessarily.

 

[Steve68]

It's a really tough problem. On the ball he's excellent and creates a lot of chances, spreading play around the pitch. His awareness of where the space is and ability to find it is brilliant and he's still difficult to stop or defend against. But defensively he will leave gaps where he struggles to cover the ground. Overall we seem to still win more with him than we would without, because we lose a lot of the control of the game without him. Fernandinho is a brilliant box to box player but he's not as capable as Yaya is at pulling the strings. If I was Pellegrini I'd be speaking to Yaya about his game management. Making sure he doesn't expend too much energy unnecessarily.

He's certainly one of our best players ever, so long as we don't play a system that asks him to defend too much. We've been lucky to have him. Over the last few years there's only King Colin who could have taken his place and made the team even better.

 

[oldhamblue]

Could never accuse Toure of expending too much energy :-)

 

[Steve68]

Could never accuse Toure of expending too much energy :-)

True. But whenever I start to feel the urge to scream when I watch him slowly lumber back up field after a run I remind myself of the two decades of dross we had to put up with before The Miracle.

 

[schfc6]

@Steve68 and supercity88. I agree with you both.

Yes we did allow Palace chances, let's not forget they are a decent side and their wingers are a threat to any team.

With regards Toure, he struggles more when Silva is missing. He and Silva keep the ball so well, Barcelona style so breaks through midfield are few and far between.

That in my opinion has been the key to our success, Silva helps us retain the ball, hence less defending and he and Toure have to be watched at all time. Add Nasri to that and teams will only ever win the ball back so deep in their own half that there is a long way to go before a chance is created.

Swap Silva & Nasri for De Bruyne and Sterling the whole shape and systems changes. Both Sterling and De Bruyne are more likely to relinquish possession and expose our defence. If the full backs are pushed on, even more so.

Toure in the early weeks looked back to his very best, with Silva being in and out of the side, Nasri being out of the side he doesn't look quite the same.

Last night there were signs that De Bruyne was happy to just retain possession with Ya Ya, Bony and Iheanacho rather than his instictive forward first thinking.

Return Silva to the side, you will see Ya Ya still has plenty to offer.

Silva, Ya Ya and Fernandinho have everything for a midfield three. Hence all the clean sheets we keep.

 

[Rolee]

Could never accuse Toure of expending too much energy :-)

Yet he consistently has the most touches, most passes in our team, this is as a result of constantly making himself available for the ball, to do this requires expending energy.

He does let himself and the team down in terms of tracking runners and closing space but I don't think it's fair to say he doesn't expend energy.

 

[Steve68]

You can see how we miss Silva and his ability to receive the ball in midfield and not only just keep it but do something dangerous. With Bony and without Silva it often falls to Bony to be the receiver in a more target man like fashion. Like you say, Sterling isn't yet as good as Silva in refusing to let the opposition have the ball.

I'm sure we will continue learning how to adjust our play with Bony. He was a total beast of a striker with Swansea. We know he can cut it in The Premiership and it is good to have a more physical option up front when you need it. At least in the Premiership if not in Europe. For all his undoubted talent and size, Dzeko wasn't that kind of striker.

But I'm a footballing dinosaur who grew up watching big physical centre forwards like Wyn Davies so what do I know.

 

[Ding Dong]

Manuel Garcia gets his moment of glory scoring last night and some numpty at the club puts up the wrong picture on the screen. They showed Aleix Garcia instead.
Oops embarrassing.

Not just once ! twice !
The numptys also put the wrong one up when he came on.